


Becoming Grim

by RinRin



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Author uses many flashbacks, Backstory, Flashbacks, Gen, M/M, Mystery, Rebellion, What makes a Reaper?, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-13 04:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14741975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RinRin/pseuds/RinRin
Summary: Kravitz doesn't talk about his past.  As far as he's concerned "I wanted to be a conductor" covers it all.  He's mostly right for how much any of his new family cares.At least, he was until the medallions started showing up on Reaper Missions.And:Kravitz's journey from simply wanting to be a conductor - a Bard, into the Reaper we first saw in Crystal Kingdom





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s the first part of my Kravitz backstory fic!  It is going to switch between “modern” (aka post canon) and his past in flashbacks, but I am going to do my best to distinguish between the two even outside of context clues.
> 
> Also!  Because this is a Kravitz centric fic, there’s a lot that I’m pulling from D&D lore, but when you are just looking stuff up, it sometimes gives you older edition stuff, and sometimes I don’t have data/wifi to look stuff up and make it up instead.  Don’t read too much into what is/isn’t currently correct in 5e.  Also also, I pull some things from Real Cultures and while it’s usually just terms, I try to still do my best to keep the cultural significance there.  If you see something that is  _not_  doing so, please let me know.
> 
> Edit: choosing Archive Warnings when you are very tired leads to mistakes. While there obviously is death in this - one must be not living to be a Reaper - there is obviously, heh, "life after death" so I don't think it counts.

Lup lets out a huff, blowing a stray hair off of her newly reformed face.

"What the actual fuck was that?" she demands.

Kravitz glances at her before kneeling down next to one of the corpses.

"Those spells were a lot stronger than a necromancer at their level should have been able to do," Barry added with a frown.

Kravitz wondered if it was always going to be like this - the two of them pointing out the obvious while he investigated.

"So Kray Kray, what type of thing could do that?" Lup asked, leaning over his shoulder.

Ah, conversation, not just stating the obvious.  It had.... been a while since he had someone to work with.  He had forgotten that colleges talked.

"Might be a Deal either with a Demon, an Outer Being, or a Fallen God looking to reclaim their place.  Or some sort of artifact created to boost power.  Or even a Cult to one of those three."

"Why would a former god work with necromancers?" Barry asked from next to the sacrificial table, "I mean, The Raven Queen is it when it comes to Death."

Kravitz gave a hum at that.  Something about all this felt... familiar.

"What's that?" Lup pointed at a medallion the man had been wearing, now facedown on the dirt.

Kravitz reached out and flipped it over.

A flower with five points was emblazoned upon it.  One Kravitz knew well.

"Hot diggity shit!  Is that an eye in the middle?" Lup asked, snatching it from his hand.

The world faded away.

   


> Kravitz ducked behind a tapestry just as the palace guards turned the corner.
> 
> Good, he would be able to sneak out now.
> 
> The medallion of his Lord Father hung like a noose around his neck as he slipped through the passageway.
> 
> He stepped outside of the castle and took a deep breath.  Was it possible to long for something he had never known?  It must be, given how he longed for the mountains his mother had once called home.
> 
> He shucked his vest and jerkin, trading them for a cloak he kept here.  He pulled the hood up over his head, doing what he could to hide his Marks, and tucked the medallion into his shirt.
> 
> As incognito as he could be, he headed away from the castle.  The farther from the castle, the worse off everything was, many in the castle only ventured down to torment those residing here, but Kravitz came to learn from them and offer what aid he could.
> 
> He slipped through the meager market and to the home of his mentor.
> 
> Kleeck glanced up as Kravitz slipped into the hut.
> 
> "Right on time," the Aarakocra nodded to him, his feathers fluffing out in joy.
> 
> Kravitz smiled at him and sat down, placing the dulcimer in his lap.
> 
> "Warm up scales," Kleeck ordered, "then compositions and Winds.  Morgran left some instructions for those before he had to go."
> 
> Kravitz nodded and they began.
> 
> All too soon the hour and a half he could slip away was over, and he had to return to the castle.
> 
> "Kravitz," Kleeck said as the teen pulled on his cloak, "please let Kuori know I think of her still."
> 
> Kravitz gave him a smile and nodded.
> 
> "I know Mother thinks of thou as well."
> 
> With that he slipped from the home, ready to make his way back.
> 
> A wrinkled hand grabbed his cloak, drawing him to a stop.
> 
> An elderly elf gazed up at him, straining her neck to look at his face, even as her hunched form tried to bring her gaze lower.
> 
> "Oh Sweet Prince, Lord of the Forgotten Souls, we beg of thee, plead with thy Lordly Father on our behalf, for we are weak, and the Demons that flit from plane to plane haunt our heels," she begged.
> 
> "I, I am not," Kravitz stuttered, "Our Lord works for all who reside here."
> 
> She shook her head, "Thy Lady Mother, Queen of th' Feathered Omen and thou, oh Sweet Prince, art of a different cloth than the King.  Thou and she care for we lowly souls.  Thou art our only hope."
> 
> She dropped his cloak.
> 
> And Kravitz fled from this wise and old elf, dodging through the crowd, hand pressed to the medallion, reassuring him that it was hidden.

"Kravitz?  Hey, Kravitz?" Lup's voice jolted him back.

He blinked at her worried face.

"You okay man?  You just, like, zoned out.  I don't want to tell Koko that his boy's broken, ya know?"

Kravitz stood, towering over his Elven companion, reaching out and pulling the medallion away from her.

"I'm fine.  Old memories."

Barry glanced over upon hearing his clipped voice and frowned.

"You recognize this?" Lup asked, her eyebrows raised.

"It was long ago, and the person it belonged to doesn't exist anymore," he snapped, twirling his scythe, "Come on, we've got more bounties to get to.  The Guards will have grabbed these Souls already."

He stalked through the newly created portal, trying to feel as if he wasn't fleeing.  The medallion felt like ice in his grasp.

He focused on the food in front of him, trying to ignore the looks he was getting from Taako.

"So Krav, Lulu said you had an interesting day at work?" Taako finally asked, his voice light and nonchalant in the way only people desperately interested in the answer can be.

"Not really," Kravitz mumbled, inspecting the salad.

He could feel Taako's eyebrows raise.

"That's not what Lup and Barry said," he left the sentence open, waiting for Kravitz to add to it.

"Damnit Taako!  I don't want to talk about it!" Kravitz snapped, slamming his fork down.

Taako narrowed his eyes.  The wizard stood up, chair skretching across the floor.  Kravitz winced at the sound, and even more as a blue Mage Hand grabbed his plate.

"Come on Ango, we're going to Fantasy Olive Garden," Taako said, holding his and Angus's plates.  From the glare he was giving Kravitz, the Reaper was not invited.

The boy detective slipped from his seat with a nod and hurried to gather his shoes and coat.

"Taako," Kravitz started, shame curling in his stomach.

"I think," Taako spoke over him, "you should finish up anything you need in the Astral Plane.  We'll talk later."

Kravitz frowned at that, but the two disappeared with a casting of Blink and Kravitz was alone.

"Damnit!" he swore, letting his skin fade away leaving him as a skeleton.  He ripped a portal open and stalked through.

He roughly pulled his flesh back on as he stalked into Shadowfell.  The little trinkets and cuffs woven into his dreads kept catching the firelight as he stormed past them.  A few of the Guards scrambled back as he stalked forward towards the Hall - so different from the castle he grew up in.

"MY OWN, WHAT TROUBLES YOU SO FOR YOU TO ENTER THUSLY AT SUCH A TIME?" The Raven Queen asked from her throne.

He paused, taking in the various Souls waiting for their turn to make their cases and winced.

"I needed to speak with you my Queen," he bowed at the waist before looking her in the eye.

She regarded him for a moment, cocking her head to the side.

"HADES, ANUBIS, NEPHTHYS, CONTINUE FOR ME," The Raven Queen intoned.

The three Celestials nodded and stepped forward to stand in front of the crowd.

The Raven Queen turned and swept from the Hall and out into Shadowfell around it.  The two walked in silence until they came to a great ger and entered, The Raven Queen tossing one hand towards the fire pit as they did so.

Kravitz watched as the goddess slipped first the great headpiece from her head, and then the feather robe.  She shook out her own dreads, little jewels and gold pieces tinkling in the firelight.

"Now tell me, what is it that ails you?" she asked, one long-nailed and bejeweled hand resting on his cheek.

He pulled away and sat on one of the small stool-chairs.

"It's in the report, but I saw a medallion today.  It was, it bore the mark of him," Kravitz told her, his voice bland as he stared into the fire.

Behind him, The Raven Queen stiffened.

"I, I didn't react well.  Lup and Barry apparently were concerned and told Taako."

"And how did he take it?" she asked, perching on the seat next to him.

"He, he was inquisitive," Kravitz told her, "He has no idea what happened, not today nor back then, and I just knew he was going to push."

She made an encouraging noise as he faltered.

"I, I snapped at him, told him I didn't want to talk about it.  Worse, I did so in front of Angus."

"Oh Kravitz," her voice was a strange mix of sympathetic and disappointed.

"I know, I know.  I just..... I don't know what to do."

"You are going to think about what you can share with him and what you will tell him you can not.  You know his Story, or near enough to most of it, but he does not know what you have had to face."

"He knows I wanted to be a conductor," Kravitz offered.

"And you would have been amazing," she told him, standing up and placing a cold kiss on his forehead before pulling on the robe and great headpiece once more, covering her body in feathers and giving her the vistage of a raven.

"STAY HERE FOR THE NIGHT.  I MUST RETURN TO THE HALL."

With that she swept from the ger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which questions don’t get answered until they do, relationships are hard, and some people show up.

> Kravitz slipped from behind the tapestry, once more in his vest and jerkin, medallion on display. He glanced around and sighed. Good, no guards. He turned and took a step towards his rooms when a hand landed on his shoulder. He stiffened.
> 
> “Dear Heart, thou hast been visiting Kleeck once more,” his mother spoke from behind him.
> 
> Kravitz spun around to face her.
> 
> “I, I don’t know what thou mean-” he started.
> 
> She interrupted him by running a hand through his straightened hair, magic warm on her hand. A modified Seeming weaving into his hair, solid unlike a regular version of the spell.
> 
> “Thine feathers were on display,” she told him with a wistful smile.
> 
> Kravitz ducked his head, peeking through his lashes at the elaborate style her own hair was in and the mostly hidden braid holding a gold bead and feather.
> 
> “Where we in the Haugskold, thy dreads would proudly show them,” she told him, placing a bejeweled hand on his cheek.
> 
> “Kleeck says thou still shine like obsidian,” he told her.
> 
> Delight lit up her face before it shuttered, and her hand dropped.
> 
> “Wife,” a harsh voice barked from behind Kravitz and he flinched, “Boy! What are the two of you doing in the middle of the hall?”
> 
> “My Lord,” Kuori’s voice was flat, “we were discussing which instrument Kravitz shall learn next.”
> 
> His Lordly Father snorted in disdain.
> 
> “Nothing will come of it, why bother?”
> 
> Kuori’s arm twitched, as if she were about to reach for a weapon that was no longer there.
> 
> Kravitz had never seen her zweihänder but Kleeck had sketched it out once, showing Kravitz how Kuori looked as the Sorcerer Queen of the Haugskold before his Lord Father had taken her.
> 
> He imagined his Lord Father did not think of said zweihänder when he spoke to Kuori thusly.
> 
> And yet, his mother stayed her hand, taking a breath before answering.
> 
> “It is enough to fill his time. Or would you rather he go to the Slums?”
> 
> His Lord Father sneered at that and stalked closer.

Kravitz woke with a start, as The Raven Queen’s favorite, oversized raven cawed at him.

Oh, it was, he had fallen asleep. He…. didn’t really do that in the Astral Plane, though Shadowfell was always an exception to the rule. He slipped from the ger, squinting at the false sun Hades had weedled for upon marrying his wife. The day cycle was determined by Persephone, but it still aligned with the Material Plane in some spots.

He needed to go, he had to explain things to Taako.

He stretched and gave a pat to one of the ravens as he headed out of Shadowfell and into the Astral Plane proper. He nodded to a few of the Guards, old souls who had sworn themselves to the good of the Astral Plane and the souls within, who would remain loyal to The Raven Queen as long as she held the well being of said souls as a top priority.

With nary a thought, Kravitz ripped a tear to the Material Plane, and Taako’s house, open and stepped through.

He was immediately tackled by his boyfriend, the elf wrapping around him and burying his head in Kravitz’s shoulder.

“Taako?”

“You didn’t come home,” the elf mumbled, and Kravitz silently cursed even as he wrapped his own arms around Taako.

“I, uh, spent the night in Shado- in the Astral Plane. I, I didn’t think you wanted me here, and, I, uh, had to think about some things-”

Taako shook his head.

“Don’t care. Just don’t, don’t do that again, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Kravitz promised, what else could he do?

Taako pulled back, determinedly ignoring how he wiped at his eyes. Kravitz let him keep the fantasy.

“You are probably starving my man. Let ol’ Taako whip you up something.”

“Taako, about last night-”

“Nope. We are having brunch and moving on.”

Kravitz swallowed and nodded. He wasn’t going to make Taako listen to his stupid past. He’d just…. deal. He’d done it before.

It was a strange few days after that, with Taako being clingy and refusing to talk about it and Kravitz both not wanting to push and desperately trying to forget the memories the medallion had brought up.

And then there was Lup.

“I don’t give a shit if you are The Raven Queen’s favorite, I will kick your ass if this keeps up,” she snarled at him before their next bounty.

Kravitz gave her a startled look.

“I, I don’t-”

“Listen here jackass, I can and will get Lucretia to put a Ward around Taako’s house to keep you out.”

“Lup, what are you-”

“How you’re treating Koko!” she exploded at him, “He’s walking on eggshells around you so you won’t fuck off again!”

Kravitz paused at that, replaying Taako’s actions since he got back and cursed himself again. Of course Taako was trying to keep him from running off, it was just like how he’d doted on Lup once she got her body back.

Gods he was an idiot. Kleeck would have whapped him upside the head for this.  _“Bards - and yes, a conductor is a Bard - must observe the feelings their music creates.”_  He hadn’t even thought about why Taako was so clingy, about what he had brought up for the elf.

“We have a job,” he told her, his voice sharp as he swept past, his flesh melting into bones, “keep the personal out of it.”

She glared at his back.

Later, Kravitz stepped through a tear and wrapped his arms around Taako, burying his face in Taako’s updo.

“I need to have a long talk with The Raven Queen,” he mumbled.

Taako turned in his arms, gazing up at him, slight panic in his eyes.

“But first I need to explain what happened before.”

“No, Taako’s good out here,” the elf protested.

Kravitz shook his head.

“I don’t, I’m not ready to share all the details, but you deserve to know,” he said.

Taako was silent at that.

“When I was a child, my mother was married to a very powerful man. She hated him dearly, but for all her strength and magic, he outclassed her. He, he didn’t treat us or those who relied on him in any decent way. My mother was as much a possession to him as any jewel. We, my mother and I, along with my mother’s lover and my mentor, led a rebellion against him. We won, and he was gone. But now these medallions that are just like the ones he made us wear are popping up in these necromancy cults.”

“You don’t like to talk about then, do you?”

“No, it, it wasn’t a good time. My mentor, Kleeck… Kleeck was all but destroyed.”

A tug on his Soul and a raven’s caw in his mind. He sighed.

“I have to go, but Taako?” he cupped Taako’s face in his hands, “I will always come back to you, okay? And if I can’t? Then I know you would find a way to get me back. You already did it once.”

Taako smirked at that.

“Damn right I did.”

Kravitz smiled at him and placed a kiss to his forehead before giving him a proper kiss. And then he was striding through a tear, flesh melting away.

“Where did you disappear to?” Lup asked with a facimal of a scowl, “I had to argue with the Guards to be able to even get that necromancer out of the Stockade. They don’t even like me!”

“They just don’t know you,” Kravitz said, nodding to one of the Guards hovering around.

:She knows not the past of this realm,: they told him.

Lup’s lich-like form flickered in confusion.

“What was that?”

“Val wished to tell me something. :She’ll get there.: Don’t worry about it.”

With that he led the way, stepping into one of the wrinkles of space in the Astral Plane that would take one to Shadowfell. The trick was knowing how to even find one outside the Appeal Gate. The Soul in Lup’s grip transformed into a ghostly figure even as her jaw dropped.

“Skin, love, it’s rude to walk about Shadowfell in work forms,” he told her, even as his own flesh formed around him.

Lup obeyed numbly.

“I didn’t know this was here,” she mumbled, glancing at the gers, the various Celestials wandering around, the Souls who had bargained with The Raven Queen for something or other that meant they were kept from the Sea of Souls, and the Guards who no longer looked like people shaped light.

“Did you think The Raven Queen held court in the Stockade?” Kravitz asked, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

“I, I guess I didn’t think about it.”

Kravitz hummed at that.

“Arawn is with her,” Persephone said as she slid up next to them.

Lup gave the Celestial a wide eyed look.

“She knows you are coming and the Three Judges are holding court outside. This must be very important,” she peered up at Kravitz through her flower crown, eyebrows raised.

“It really is. Ellyjobell will most likely join us as well,” Kravitz glanced at the Guard as the once-gnome stepped into line with him.

The grim look on her face was only made worse by the scar she still bore that nearly bisected her face.

Persephone gave a startled look to the pair of them and fell back.

Kravitz led the way into the Hall where The Raven Queen and one of the Celestials were leaning over a map. Arawn was a more than capable warrior, and was more willing than some of the other Death Celestials to fight for the Souls in their possession and the well being of the living.

The two glanced up as the group entered.

“DID YOU SPEAK WITH TAAKO MY OWN?” The Raven Queen asked, the hint of her smirk only visible when one knew where to look around her great headpiece.

Kravitz rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I did. But if we could focus on the important part?”

Arawn chuckled at the two of them.

“YOU AND YOUR RELATIONSHIP ARE ALSO IMPORTANT TO ME MY OWN,” she teased him.

Kravitz flushed before motioning Lup and the necromancer forward.

“This is one of the recent necromancers we have found with that mark. And this one was willing to make a deal.”

The Raven Queen grew serious at that.

“CENTAUR NESSUS SHOULD YOU PROVIDE INFORMATION ON THE MEDALLION YOU WERE FOUND WITH, TIME SHALL BE LIFTED FROM YOUR SENTENCE, THE AMOUNT DETERMINED BY THE CONTENT OF YOUR INFORMATION.”

Nessus quaked at that before straightening.

“We serve an Old God, one that predates even you,” Nessus sneered, “the High Priest realized the whispers for what they were once we all heard the Story.”

The Raven Queen regarded him for a moment.

“HM. ALMOST USELESS. BUT STILL, I CAN BE GENEROUS. ONE YEAR.”

“What?! When Nerull takes his rightful place, you will be ousted from power and placed under Him, where you should be! When that day comes his loyal servants will be rewarded and I will be free!” Nessus ranted.

Kravitz swung is scythe around with a flourish, bringing it to a rest on Nessus’s throat.

“Speak like that again and your sentence will become a Destruction instead of Imprisonment,” he spoke casually.

Nessus froze at that. The large raven that shadowed The Raven Queen most of the time chortled.

Ellyjobell stalked to the door and jerked it open.

“Henzio! Shava! Get in here!” she barked.

Two more Guards slipped into the Hall, nodding at the reapers and giving short bows to the goddess before focusing on Ellyjobell.

“We’re done with this trash, take it back to the Stockade.”

The Aasimar and Elf nodded and grabbed Nessus, effortlessly dragging him away. Once they were gone, Ellyjobell turned back to the rest.

“So,” she said, her voice falsely cheerful, “the Cult of Nerull is back. What are we going to do?”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please feel free to chat with me over on [Tumblr](rinrinp42.tumblr.com), though I don't have wifi at work, so it'll take me a bit usually to respond!
> 
> ☆ ～('▽^人)


End file.
